Both of them started back.

"Whew! You must have given him an awful dose, Checkers," said the man of the house.

"Had to do it, Dude. If I hadn't, I'd never got him here, that's a cinch."

"Well, get his gun off before he comes to."

Ted was stripped of his weapons, a gla.s.s of water was thrown into his face, and he began to regain consciousness.

He had been shot down with an ammonia gun, and the powerful alkaloid gas had almost killed him. For a long time he breathed in gasps, but his splendid const.i.tution pulled him through.

When they saw that he was recovering, the two men left the room, after examining the iron-barred windows, and as they went out they locked and barred the door behind them.

CHAPTER XVII.

MURDER IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE.

Ted lay for a long time only half conscious.

But gradually his senses returned, and he opened his eyes to find himself in darkness, trying hard to think what had happened to him.

He knew that he had been felled by something powerful and terrible, that had knocked him in a heap so suddenly that he hardly knew what had happened to him.

Slowly the consciousness of it all came to him. Some one in an automobile had ridden alongside him and thrown ammonia in his face.

His eyes were still smarting with it, and he wondered, seeing no light, if it had blinded him, and he was now lying in the dark when there was light all around him.

He struggled with this thought for a moment, because the idea of going blind was terrible to him.

He wondered where he was, and felt around and learned that he was lying on a couch.

Then he swung his feet to the floor and sat up. The ammonia had left him still weak, but gradually he became stronger, and got to his feet and began to explore the room with his fingers.

He found a chair and a table, and presently came to the door, which he tried to open, but could not.

Pa.s.sing around the room, he arrived at the window, and, looking through the gla.s.s, saw a star, and thanked Heaven that he could see.

He tried the fastenings of the window, unlocked it, and threw it up, stretching out his hand. The window was closed with iron bars.

He had made the circuit of the room, and had discovered that he was securely shut in.

He went back to the lounge and lay down to think matters over.

He felt quite sure that the man Checkers had been his a.s.sailant. The warning had not been without reason, after all.

As he lay quietly he heard footsteps in the next room. Two men evidently had entered it. They were talking, and occasionally, when their voices rose higher than usual, he could catch a word or two.

From the tones of their voices he learned that the conversation was not of the most pleasant nature. They were quarreling about something.

By degrees their voices grew higher, and occasionally Ted caught such words as "money," "half," "thousand," enough to tell him that they were dividing something.

"They're quarreling over the swag," said Ted to himself. "Good! 'When thieves fall out, honest men get their dues,'" he quoted. "Keep it up, and I'll get you yet."

They did keep it up.

It was the voice of Checkers that rose high.

"I tell you I'll have half or I'll split on you, if I go to the 'stir'

for the rest of my life."

"If you do split, you won't go to the 'stir.' The boys will kill you before you get the chance."

"Well, what's your proposition?"

"I'll give you five thousand. That's enough for putting me next to the train. What do you want? The earth? Didn't I do the dirty work? If I'd been caught, who'd have been soaked? You? I guess not. It would have been me who would have been killed, for I'm like the other fellows--I'd have fought until they killed me. You're not ent.i.tled to more than five thousand, and that's all you'll get."

"I won't take it. Half or I squeal."

"Squeal, then."

There was a sudden trampling of feet in the other room, the crash of an overturning table, followed by a yell of death agony, and the thud of a falling body.

"Great Scott, one of them is dead," said Ted, with a shudder.

He was listening intently, and heard a scuffle of feet, then hurried footsteps died away and a door slammed somewhere.

Deep silence followed.

Then the horror of the situation burst upon Ted, The house had been deserted by the only living creature, except himself, who was left to starve to death in this prison, with a dead man in the next room.

One or the other of the two men who had held him captive had done murder and escaped with the stolen money.

Ted lay speculating which was dead and which had escaped, but he could make nothing of it.

The night dragged wearily on for Ted could not sleep, for thinking of the dead man in the next room, and his own precarious position.

He reviewed the chances of his being rescued. They were very slim, indeed.

Bud and Chief Desmond would start a hunt for him about the city, but would not find him, and no one would think of looking for him in this deserted house.

But at last the night pa.s.sed, and Ted watched with a grateful heart the gradual dawning of the day.

At last it was light enough to see, and he looked around the room.

It was old-fashioned and high. Through the window he could see a bit of the high brick fence, and a few trees and long, tangled, dead gra.s.s.